Category Archives: Reviews by genre

Belief “The Lost Cause” demo tape, 1993

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Belief “The Lost Cause” demo tape, advanced brutish Death Metal from Genova, 1993.

One of the most proficient Death Metal bands from Italy back in 1993 when there were really not so many bands playing this kind of ass-tight kind of brutish music that crossed the lines between technical thrash and brutal death. I remember buying this demo in the parking lot in front of some gig but I lost touch with them almost immediately so I can’t remember much more besides that for the time they were among the most articulated and brutal bands playing Death Metal around. Of course this demo could not stand by today’s standard of intricacy and sound quality but for 1993, it was really on peak, despite some progressive wanking (the Death post ITP influences were starting to spread in those years) and just a handful of ingenuous bridges that never convinced me completely they had a surprisingly varied and complex song-writing and could blast properly and had really interesting vocals. There is a shitload of cool solos and lotsa tempo changes but never indulging too much in Atheist-like fa**otries. A band ahead of its time.

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Suffer “On Sour Ground” 7″ EP, 1991

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Suffer “On Sour Ground” 7″ EP, technical early not-so-swedish Death Metal with agonizing vocals from Sweden, 1991 New Wave.

I picked out this 7″ randomly from the box but I am glad I can say something about it.
The label on which this damn good EP was released wasn’t really known for a high quality roster, I would just mention the classic Loudblast/Agressor split plus a few sparse hardcore/thrashy/punkish crossover records among the few things worth spending a few bucks on. However, they managed to score a good point here.
Suffer had a few elements of distinction that separated them from the rest of the Swedish Death Metal bands of their time, tending more towards an American Tampa sound than the mushy swedish HM distortion. They remind me a little a less refined, more visceral version of “Soulside Journey” with that rare kind of painful, heartbreaking vocals a la Morgoth or Dark Millennium. Blasting but not grindcore, with shitloads of tempo changes and solos, this is an EP made by musicians that arguably took their time and effort to put together a song.
By the way, this sounds really SO 1991!

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Pneuma Hagion “Trinity I” tape, 2015

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Pneuma Hagion “Trinity I” tape, deep slow & low tuned Death Metal from Texas, 2015 Nuclear War Now!

Small one man project of Ryan Wilson from Intestinal Disgorge, a band whose lows are way less than the highs, but that here pulls out a decent nice release. With Pneuma Hagion Ryan tries the slow chunky Death Metal way with deep Pillardesque vocals, so much so this tape reminds a non-esoteric or non-evil version Onward to Golgotha. I generally struggle to like one man bands, but Ryan sounds inspired here and albeit there is not much difference between the songs (they basically all sound the same) the formula of having low tuned tremolos with slow grinding bridges and ultra deep grunts is nice so I would give it a distracted 6. Not stuff I’d really spend my cash for a vinyl as it was recently repressed on wax by NWN together with another three EPs, but I have heard much worse.

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Burial “The Forgotten” tape, 2019

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Burial “The Forgotten” tape, genuinely massive albeit somehow unripe Death Metal from Italy, 2019 Dismal Fate

Mentioning the term “funeral” while describing this nice little EP might mislead you into thinking about some grindingly slow romantic Death Doom. I will still use it but I will take care to specify there is not a huge dose of romance in here, especially if you take care to read the lyrics. It’s not like some Anathema brought to Death Metal, but more like an ultrasimplified teenage version of Anatomia if they were born in UK in early 1990 (ahah I love to twist things, yep). Burial is a nice youthful two piece that play ultra massive Death Metal with a really superior production and some moments of remote, melancholic mindtrips. They might not be the most complete band of all time but they have a genuine taste for good songwriting and a really massive yet crystal clear sound. Worth giving a try, they also released another recording in 2019 so you might as well get that one from Dismal Fate. Good work thus far!

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Hostis Humani Generis “Asphyxiation In Blood” tape, 2017

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Hostis Humani Generis “Asphyxiation In Blood” tape, Death Metal from Finland, 2017 Unholy Domain

I had to listen to this tape over and over before assembling a reasonable string of thoughts into a review, and that’s because while the band is so primitive in songwriting every member is a 20+ year veteran on the scene and I had to clearly envision why they decided to go this minimal.
Many things on this recording work. For a start, the recording has a weird ambience, typical of earlier finnish recordings of bands like Belial or Unholy (quite different stuff, but just to give an idea), that music that was not yet defined as either Black or Death or whatever, just grim and painful. One riff: much feel. And the vocals are amazing too, hellish and evil.
Yet while I think I got their point I am not able to get too hooked, I love this stuff in general but when things get this simplified I believe one riff, just one great riff is enough to change the game, but then I cannot hear a single great riff in there. Huge potential and yet hitherto unexplored.

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Sacrocurse “Destroying Chapels” 7″ EP, 2016

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Sacrocurse “Destroying Chapels” 7″ EP, blasphemous raging southern Death Metal from Mexico, 2016 Iron Bonehead

This breed of blasphemic whirlwind of apocalyptic Death Metal expanded from South America upwards to Mexico where the seeds planted by bands like Domain/Ravager obviously grew up to the new standards of Chilean-like barbarity. This EP is probably my favorite recording by the band so far and is nothing short of devastating, it lashes like Abominator or a less guitar shredding version of earlier Angelcorpse with an extra dose of south American intensity, think of the late 90’s Brazilian wave taken to newest standards of production.
The Bathory cover closes reasonably well side B but the opening Destroying Chapels is really “a fist in the face of God”, I am really a sucker for these savages of the southern lands, there is a huge need of this music today.
A collaborative work between the tentacular Hell’s Headbangers and Iron Bonehead since the beginning the band released a second album two years ago. Go get this 7″ as it’s still quite cheap. It comes with a nice insert and it has something you seldom see anymore these days: lyrics!

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Schizoparanoic Platoon “Warfare: Mass Annihilation” MCd, 2019

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Schizoparanoic Platoon “Warfare: Mass Annihilation” MCd, Martial und militaristic Death Metal from Greece, 2019 Askio

Very acidic, rusty, warmongering Death Metal is what we get from this decently prolific band from Greece, whose latest EP (this) has also been recently repressed on tape by Infested Morgue rex.
Battlefield insanity is what better defines this band, in a more acidic “Voivod projected 300 years in the future” or a more brutal static version of Marduk/Exmortem way more than Bolt Thrower. I personally wan’t sure of this recording the first time I put this one in the record player but the cyclical obsessive sound dug in rather quickly. The vocals are stern and arrogant, just shouting orders on top of a squadron of tracklaying bass/drum machinery.
Misleadingly monolithic, there is also more stuff going on within this suffocating mass of sound than what might seem at first.

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